The line cut out and Nicole cursed, checking for signal.
They knew … a long-coiled tension in her stomach soothed slightly. There was a chance Kyan had already dealt with their mother’s murderer if it was revealed to be Logan. But it meant they were a step ahead, finally.
Logan was gone.
They knew the identity of the Wake.
And, Kyan …
Maybe this could work. Maybe she could allow herself to acknowledge more of the depth of her feelings without the risk of the Wake finding out about him.
Reminding her legs how to move, she headed into the other room.
It was a bedroom, the ceiling peaking up into a triangle. There was one large bed, long and wide enough for an Empyreal. On the left, the wall was taken up with a one-way window. On the right, stood a sleek black free-standing fireplace and the door into a bathroom.
The fire was ready to be lit, so she searched the kitchen drawers to find some long matches, then set the kindling aflame. A cosy, gentle heat bathed her face as she heard Kyan re-enter.
Nicole’s heart stuttered as she met him in the kitchen and found him gripping the counter as if recalibrating.
He hadn’t lost that wild tension in his shoulders, or the feral hunger that seemed to war with his weariness.
‘Are the family all right?’ He was trying to tamp down the hunter. She could see it in the depths of his eyes, in his attempt to force ease into his movements.
It only called to the slumbering huntress inside her, that golden thing that glowed a little brighter when he was near; that had been called and reassured by what he’d done in the forest.
‘Yes, they’re okay. But are you? Do you want to talk about everything the Druid said?’
About the gods, and the promise of destruction at the end of this road?
About your returned sister?
Kyan shook his head slowly. ‘You should get dry.’
He couldn’t talk right now for the same reasons she couldn’t.
She wasn’t going to leave him like this.
My mate.
He held her bag with a white-knuckled grip, so Nicole approached slowly. She could have sworn he stopped breathing. She brushed his bloodied fingers as she took it, her breasts grazing the tense muscle of his arm. His strong throat flexed with a swallow as his eyes closed.
‘Okay,’ she said, voice breathier than she expected.
The pressure of his body against her wet shirt had her biting back a moan, her nipples hard from the rain and the steadily buildingneed.
Nicole made herself turn, skin pebbled and sensitive.
She felt his hot gaze on her until she walked through to the bathroom and turned on the shower – a walk-in of glass that spanned one whole wall.
Nicole closed the bathroom door over, just enough to peel off her wet clothes as the water heated, but not all the way, so it started to swing open again as she stepped into the hot rush. She shuddered at the heat and plumes of steam, at the wild feeling of being undressed.Completelyundressed and near him.
Nicole allowed herself a sigh of pleasure that caused Kyan to form a string of low curse words from the kitchen. She wiped his blood off her, looking at it on her fingers and feeling her heart swell to the point of pain. Felthim, like that bind had grown so tight and hot it matched the heat throbbing elsewhere in her body.
Maybe she could admit everything?Feelall of this without worry or guilt?
‘Kyan.’ She said his name in a tone close to her Influence, knowing he could hear her despite the running water. It was a voice that knew what it wanted. Low, confident. ‘Come in here.’
She was near vibrating, fighting with the suspense.
